Protest in Hong Kong
Police use tear gas; counterprotesters attack subway riders
A protester kicks a tear-gas canister launched by police Sunday during a pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong. Protesters marched to express their dissatisfaction with the refusal of city leader Carrie Lam to formally withdraw legislation that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The gathering grew contentious when demonstrators moved past a police-designated end point and occupied government and business districts.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong police launched tear gas at protesters Sunday after a march continued late into the evening, and subway riders were attacked by masked assailants who apparently were targeting pro-democracy demonstrators.
The incidents marked a violent turn for the fight over a proposed extradition bill, which has included calls for direct elections in the Chinese territory.
Sunday’s march had been peaceful when it reached its police-designated end point in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district in the late afternoon, but thousands continued onward, at various points occupying key government and business districts. They then headed for the Liaison Office, which represents China’s Communist Party-led central government within the city.
Protesters threw eggs at the building and spray-painted its surrounding surveillance cameras. China’s national emblem, which adorns the front of the Liaison Office, was splattered with black ink. The Liaison Office said in comments published on Chinese state media that the acts “openly challenged the authority of the central government and touched the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle.”
Later, police threw tear gas canisters at protesters to try to disperse them. Protesters scattered, some heading back in the direction of a key business and retail district. Police remained in place, protecting themselves with shields. Police said on their official social media accounts that protesters threw bricks and Molotov cocktails at them and attacked the central police station.
Hong Kong media released video showing masked assailants attacking commuters in a subway station. Among those attacked were protesters clad in their trademark black clothing and yellow hard hats.
The attackers, meanwhile, were dressed in white with black masks pulled over their heads. On Saturday, demonstrators wore white at a counter-rally in support of police.
Footage from Apple Daily showed the attackers using umbrellas to beat people in the station and inside a subway car. Subway passengers were recorded angrily accusing police officers of not intervening in the attack. Stand News reporter Gwyneth Ho said on Facebook that she suffered minor injuries to her hands and shoulder, and was dizzy from a head injury. The South China Morning Post reported that several people were bleeding after the attacks, and that seven people were sent to the hospital.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement shortly after midnight that commuters were attacked at a subway station in the city’s Yuen Long neighborhood, leading to “confrontations and injuries.”
The statement also said some “radical protesters initiated a series of violent acts … despite repeated warnings” by police. They said the acts included hurling Molotov cocktails, setting fires and throwing bricks.
“This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law,” the statement said, referring to the acts of the subway attackers as well as the protesters.
Organizers said 430,000 people participated in Sunday’s march, while police said there were 138,000 during the procession’s “peak period.”
Large protests began early last month in opposition to a contentious extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to stand trial in mainland China, where critics say their rights would be compromised.
Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has declared the extradition bill dead, but protesters are dissatisfied with her refusal to formally withdraw the legislation. Some are also calling for her to resign amid growing concerns about the steady erosion of civil rights in the city.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997 and was promised certain democratic freedoms under the framework of “one country, two systems.” Fueled by anger at Lam and an enduring distrust of the Communist Party-ruled central government in Beijing, the current demonstrations have ballooned into calls for electoral changes and an investigation into reports of police brutality at the protests.
Walking in sweltering heat, protesters dressed in black kicked off Sunday’s march at a public park, carrying a large banner that read “Independent Inquiry for Rule of Law.”
“Free Hong Kong! Democracy now!” the protesters chanted, forming a dense procession through Wan Chai as they were joined by others who had been waiting in side streets.
“The government has never responded to our demands,” said Karen Yu, a 52-year-old Hong Kong resident who has attended four protests since they started. “No matter how much the government can do, at least it should come out and respond to us directly.”
Protesters repeated the five points of their “manifesto,” which was first introduced when a small group of them stormed the legislature earlier this month. Their main demands include universal suffrage — direct voting rights for all Hong Kong residents — as well as dropping charges against anti-extradition protesters, withdrawing the characterization of a clash between police and protesters as a “riot” and dissolving the Legislative Council.
The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, condemned “radical extremists” who attacked the legislature and “trampled” on Hong Kong’s rule of law in a front-page column Sunday. The paper said the counter-rally Saturday intended to show support for the police reflected “mainstream public opinion” in Hong Kong.